NEW DELHI: Saudi and Indian tech startups and investors who entered partnerships at the recent G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit have started working on their joint projects as they seek to develop an ecosystem of innovation in the Kingdom.

The YEA Summit took place in New Delhi in mid-July to promote young entrepreneurs from G20 countries as drivers of economic renewal and social change.

Led by Prince Fahad bin Mansour, president of the Saudi G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance, the Saudi delegation entered several partnerships with other participants, especially the host, India.

One of them was with Pravaig Dynamics, an electric vehicle equipment producer from Bengaluru — India’s main tech hub — which signed a memorandum of understanding with investment firm Saudi India Venture Studio.

The companies said in a joint statement after the signing ceremony on July 16 that their cooperation aimed to “to revolutionize the automotive industry” and “propel technological evolution in the EV, battery, and AI sectors.”

Siddhartha Bagri, CEO of Pravaig, told Arab News that the partnership presented a possibility to shape the global technology landscape.

“The MoUs is to do manufacturing across the next few years and we hope to establish first an ecosystem of brains over there,” he said.

“This MoU marks an intent for both of us to invest lots in technology, talent and move a lot of resources to Saudi Arabia make an ecosystem around it.”

He expected a roadmap for establishing an EV manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia to be ready by the year’s end and have the capacity to produce at least 1 million vehicles, catering not only to demand in the Kingdom, but also other Gulf countries, Europe and the US.

The potential Bagri saw for Indian innovators was huge in terms of developing their ideas and technologies, especially with the megaprojects such as the Kingdom’s flagship $500 billion smart city NEOM.

“It is an opportunity for the world’s minds to possibly look at a new destination especially with NEOM, the new city, to have very interesting creative outlays, where almost anything is possible,” he said.

That option applied also to women entrepreneurs as another agreement signed during the G20 YEA summit aimed to connect female-led businesses, especially startups, and help them to thrive in Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Huda Al-Fardus, CEO of Riyadh-based HealthGena, signed the agreement with The Circle Work, a Gurgaon-based business accelerator to help scale startups.

“(At) the Saudi-led entrepreneur ecosystem incubator and accelerator in Riyadh that I run, we are looking to collaborate with female-led initiatives and programs and startups from India,” Al-Fardus told Arab News.

“We will help them directly, as my team is also 80 percent female, so basically we would be helping them to grow here in the Kingdom and access opportunities for the market itself, for the investment, for the talents.”

Cooperation with The Circle and the swiftness of exploring the possibilities and reaching the agreement during the New Delhi summit made her optimistic about future partnerships with India as well.

“We did everything within three days. We met them on day one, which was the first time we met, and heard of their ecosystem. Then very quickly we learned about what they do, how it aligns with the stuff that we want to see in the ecosystem, and we came up with our collaboration plan. And on the third day we signed our MoU endorsed by the entire delegation,” she said.

“I think India is a great country to collaborate with in terms of developing the entrepreneurship ecosystem at the global level.”

Nemesisa Ujjain, innovation director at The Circle, was also enthusiastic about the collaboration.

“In the Saudi delegation we found really strong women and it was a great feeling that they also want to empower women and support women entrepreneurs as much as we do. I think that is a cool synergy and we want to do this a lot more,” she told Arab News.

“We will do exchange programs where we will have delegations coming and exploring, discovering the economy, the opportunity in the market, the investment, because currently you know Saudi Arabia is becoming one of the biggest investors of technology and startups across the globe.”

Ujjain also saw the partnership as helpful in changing the startup environment in Asia, where she estimated that only 2 percent of women-led initiatives were getting funding.

“That is the statistic that we want to change,” she said. “I think if we can do something together, if we can give an extra push to this, I think that would be a great milestone to achieve.”